>>To all those living North of the border Happy Thanksgiving and all of those of the Jewish faith Happy Yom Kippur...
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>Thanks for your good wishes, but fwiw, Yom Kippur is a solemn, serious occasion. It's a fast day on which we atone for our sins of the preceding year. Traditional greetings are "May you be inscribed for a good year" and "May you have an easy fast." < s >
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>Tamar

For anyone interested...

Yon Kippor was the only day mandated by the Torah (first 5 books of what we Westerners call the Old testament) to ba a solemn assembly. All the other 6 (there were 7 total) were to be joyful assemblies.

Yom Kippor was the only day that the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies and make atonement for the people's sins.

It's also where we get the phrase scape goat, which actually is a contraction of 'escaped goat'.

Here's a clip from a Christian web site that explains the seven feasts:

"The Seven Feasts of Moses

The Torah - the five books of Moses - details seven feasts during the Hebrew calendar:1 Three feasts are in the spring, in the month of Nisan: Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits. Then fifty days later there is the Feast of Weeks, Shavout, also known as Pentecost.

There are three remaining feasts in the fall, in the month of Tishri: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Tabernacles. (There are two reckonings of the Hebrew year: the civil year starts in the fall on the 1st of Tishri; the religious calendar starts in the spring in the month of Nisan.2 )"

And here's the link in case anyone's interested: http://www.khouse.org/articles/biblestudy/19990901-250.html

I would encourage folks to learn about the Jewish feasts anf traditions. There are no other peoples who have such a unique history and they, along with the arabs are where we get a lot of our culture today.

Best,